Parente Re-Signs With K-PAX For 2018 PWC Season

First drive in a Bentley for the Portuguese GT star

19 December 2017, 4:08 PM

K-PAX Racing is set to race with its 2016 PWC Championship-winning driver Alvaro Parente for a third season in the series in 2018, the Californian team has announced.

Parente was the foundation of the team’s 2016 success in which it won the Team, Manufacturer and Driver’s titles with McLaren 650S GT3s. Now, the team will race with Bentley, but will continue to race with the former McLaren GT factory driver.

“With the addition of Bentley, we are pleased to have Álvaro returning to K-PAX Racing for the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge season,” K-PAX Racing team owner Jim Haughey said. “The series grows more competitive each year, and we are excited to have Álvaro back in action – a driver who has brought great success to our team over the past two seasons.”

Programme manager Darren Law is also extremely pleased that Parente will stay with the team, after scoring 10 wins and 18 podiums in two seasons with K-PAX.

“I have spent most of my motorsports career as a driver, and I have driven against and with some of the best drivers in the world,” Law said. “After spending the last two seasons with Álvaro, I am very confident in saying he is for sure one of the best. He has the speed, the race-craft and the judgement that you want in a driver.”

Reflecting on last season’s highs, in which he challenged for the title again, Parente said he owed his success to his crew.

“We won the championship our first year together and finished second [in Sprint GT] this season,” said Parente. “The results are great because the guys are really good. The professionalism and the way we work together has been fantastic, and that’s one of the main reasons why I’m coming back. I feel we all work in the same direction, and it’s such a hard-working group of people that do the job well with the same ambitions as me.

“Jim is also one of the reasons why I am coming back. I want to keep working with him. He loves racing and loves to do well. I love that spirit. I’m happy to be working with Jim again.”

Parente will compete in the #9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3. Parente hopes it won’t take long to get up to speed in the new car.

“That should be interesting,” added Parente. “It’s a big change in terms of driving the car on the right-hand side. I hope I’ll adapt quickly to that situation and that it won’t be complicated.

“The rest is me and the team working hard to learn about this new car. The biggest thing is setup, making the car comfortable for me and making it as quick as possible. I think that’s something we do well at K-PAX Racing. Adapting quickly will be the trick for us, it’s extracting the maximum potential out of the car setup-wise, and I think we have the right ingredients to do that.”

K-PAX Racing will announce its second full-time driver for the 2018 race season at a later date.